Man Needs Caffeine Jolt or Reversal of Fortune

Henry's Crime

Keanu Reeves in "Henry's Crime."Credit
Moving Pictures Film and Television

There are movies that are so low key they risk enervation. If the movie is purposely chill, you may be able to go with the relaxed flow; but if it’s too subdued, you might feel like slapping it (or yourself) awake. “Henry’s Crime,” a muted comedy with Keanu Reeves, is a painless, at times likable, drifty comedy. But its mood is so muffled and point so submerged, it’s difficult to see why Mr. Reeves and the rest of the cast pooled their talents to make a movie about a nowhere man going no place in particular in Buffalo.

Henry, played by Mr. Reeves as a blank Everyman, does go at least one place. One morning, after returning from his night job at a tollbooth, he agrees to join an acquaintance, Eddie Vibes (Fisher Stevens), in a baseball game as a substitute for another guy, Joe (Danny Hoch). The game turns out to be nonexistent. Instead, hapless, luckless, expressionless Henry ends up the accidental wheelman in a robbery that lands him in the slammer, where he shares a cozy cell with a confidence man Max Saltzman (James Caan, unexpectedly twinkly).

Eventually Henry is released, and the plot eases forward as he loses one woman (Judy Greer as Debbie), finds another (Vera Farmiga as Julie), plans a life of crime and discovers a possible calling. There’s more if not much, including a strained use of “The Cherry Orchard,” which is being mounted by a theater with Julie in the role of Lyubov, the indebted aristocrat who loses the orchard. The play doesn’t have much to do with Henry and his slow-evolving world, though it’s nice to hear Chekhov. Like Henry the script, by Sacha Gervasi and David White, and the direction, from Malcolm Venville, are content to coast.

However appealing, Mr. Reeves isn’t what you would call a live wire, even in his most invigorated action movies, and his mellow presence only helps keep the diminished energy at critically low levels. He might seem a natural for a guy as zonked as Henry. But the movie needs something, a modest surprise, a dose of vitality or maybe vitamins. Happily, Mr. Caan, who does the cute codger thing surprisingly well, provides a little oomph. And so does Ms. Farmiga, who often plays the support when she should be the star, and here tries hard to pretend that her attractive character might be facing a loveless future in Buffalo and is happy to settle. Another plus: Bill Duke, who in a minor role as a guard reminds you that he has one of the great mugs in movies.

Directed by Malcolm Venville; written by Sacha Gervasi and David White, director of photography, Paul Cameron; edited by Curtiss Clayton; production design by Chris Jones; produced by Stephen Hamel, Lemore Syvan, Jordan Schur and David J. Mimran; released by Moving Pictures Film and Television. Running time: 1 hour 47 minutes.